Forever Road
by nvrl8emt
Summary: And though their life together started out from moments of great pain and distress, they managed to find their way to each other. A deep and unending love formed that surprised them both, but they couldn't see a life without the other in it forever.


Forever Road

by: nvrl8emt

Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy or any of the characters involved with the show. They all belong to the great Shonda Rhimes, and I'm only borrowing them for this story. Any unrecognizable characters are my property, such as Aubrey Karev and James Shepherd. I will be naming them as I write them, so as I go I will add them to the disclaimers and authors' notes. Also, there is a character death in this story. I won't ruin it just yet, but please note that although I do like the character ... it had to happen in order for this story to work.

Author's Note: I have been greatly inspired by the writings of greypolkadots and so I decided to dabble a bit in writing once again. For now this will focus soley on Alex and Arizona, but I do hope to include other characters in forthcoming chapters.

Gotta Be Somebody

He couldn't believe that he was here. Twenty years was a long time for him to feel this happy and for his life to be this perfect. He never thought that he'd get to this point in his life. The point where he'd end up married to the woman of his dreams, and yet he had been married very happily for the past twenty years. And this woman was the one person that no one thought that he'd end up with. She had brought so much into his life after there had been so much tragedy in both of their lives. She'd brightened up each and every dark shadow within him, changing him into a far better man than he ever would've been without her in his life. And today, their lives were changing even further. Their oldest child was getting married.

He stood in the corner of their daughters former bedroom. The walls were painted a pale pink that their little girl had never really felt like changing. Alex sighed quietly to himself as he continued to look over the room. His little girl wasn't so much of a little girl anymore. She was a grown woman and tomorrow she would be a married woman. He had to give his only daughter away to a man that he actually liked, even though that meant that she would no longer live under his roof anymore. Alex knew that he'd still get to see her and be a part of her life. But he wouldn't be able to see her every morning as she came grumbling down the stairs at having to be up so early in the morning for school. She was only nineteen. And no matter how much he said that he was ready for this step in his oldest childs' life, he wasn't really. He just wanted her to go back to being the little infant, swaddled in the pale pink blanket that he'd rocked back and forth just hours after her birth.

Alex turned as he felt a soft touch on his shoulder. She had startled him slightly, but he should've known that she'd come looking for him sooner or later. After twenty years of marriage, she knew when he needed to be left alone and when he needed her near. She was as much his rock as he was hers. And he didn't think that he'd ever make it this far in his life if it hadn't of been for her. He smiled softly down at the blonde as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her against his body. Pressing a kiss against her forehead, he looked down at her and allowed his eyes to connect with hers. "I can't believe that after tomorrow, Aubrey will no longer live here with us. It feels like it was just yesterday that we brought her home, Zo." he whispered against the top of her head.

Arizona smiled softly against Alex's neck before pressing a kiss in the same spot. "I know what you mean, babe. But she's nineteen. She's not our little girl even more." she stated while she continued to look up at him. She caught the look in his eye and quickly stopped his next comment with a peck on his lips. Pulling back, she said. "Yes, she will always be our little girl, Alex. But now it's time for our little girl to grow up into the woman that we've raised her to be." She knew that this was hard on him, but they had both met Aubrey's fiancè long ago and had both approved of the guy. Hell, they'd watched the boy grow up before their very eyes. It wasn't like James Shepherd was some guy that Aubrey had met while away for her freshman year of college. They'd pretty much known each other since birth thanks to their parents all working together. And James was a really good guy and as long as he kept Aubrey happy, that was the most important thing to the both of them.

Alex heard the sniffles coming from his wife and he looked down. Rubbing at her cheeks with the pads of his thumbs, he leaned down to capture her lips with the gentlest of kisses. "Every time I see her with James... Ugh I just can't get the image of our baby girl in that pink blanket after she was born." he mumbled against her lips. Pulling bank, he rubbed his hands slowly up and down her back. She was still as beautiful as the day that he'd first realized that he'd fallen for her, and to him she would always be beautiful. He made sure to tell her that daily. And their daughter had taken completely after her mother in the looks department. She had the beautiful wavy blonde hair and the sparkling aqua blue eyes completely inherited from her mother. Her attitude was attributed to him, but just looking at her anyone could easily see a younger version of Arizona. Alex had never been ready for the day that his daughter would decide to get married, yet he knew that one day she would tell him as much. He was happy though that James had actually come to him and Arizona to ask for their permission to marry their daughter before even proposing to Aubrey. In Alex's eyes that made James the right man for his little girl. "She's too young for this..." he complained, pouting his lower lip just slightly. No matter how much he knew that this was one of the next steps in Aubrey's life, he wasn't ready to completely give her up. She was his baby girl. And he felt that he was being completely replaced by another man. it wasn't the same, but to Alex it was everything.

Arizona knew exactly what her husband was talking about, it kept hitting her that her daughter was all grown up with everything they managed to check off of Aubrey's wedding to-do list. She never thought that she would be this woman. The kind that got married. Well married to a man really. Back when she and Alex had first met, she was the Pediatric Attending at Seattle Grace-Mercy West Hospital and he had been one of her residents. She was a gold star lesbian. Man, did she love the ladies. But over the years, her entire life had changed. She wouldn't have done anything different. Their life together was far from perfect, but it was their life and they never let anyone tell them how to live them. They fell in love slowly after some huge tragedies in their lives. They took things slowly which was something that Arizona knew had to be hard for Alex. It made her love him even more though that he was willing to give her the time that she needed to put all of the pieces of her life together. If it hadn't of been for him, she certainly wouldn't be where she was at today. He saved her in so many ways and she would forever be grateful to him. She smiled up at him before playfully nipping at his adorable lower lip. "Babe, I think Aubrey is more than ready for this. And so is James. I think it's more like you aren't ready to let your baby girl go." she surmised. "Besides, it's not like she's completely walking out of our lives. There are some things that she will always need her daddy for."

They continued to stand in the middle of the room as memories started to flow in their minds. The day that Aubrey was born, the day that they brought her home from the hospital, her first words, her first broken bone, the day that she showed up all the boys on the baseball field, her first dance recital. The memories went on and on. And they just wanted to go back and have Aubrey be their baby girl once again. Alex lead Arizona over to the double bed that was still situated in the center of the back wall of the bedroom and pulled her down onto it with him. They both cuddled up against the pillows as memories from the past twenty years flooded through their minds. Neither realized that they had both started remembering the exact same moment in their lives... the moment that started it all. The moment that they both realized that they couldn't go on living without the other. If it hadn't of been for all of those moments, they wouldn't have their three children, they wouldn't be getting ready for a marriage, and they certainly wouldn't be preparing to celebrate their own twentieth wedding anniversary.

And it all started with a painful memory for Arizona. One where Alex supported her. No matter how much she tried to push him away, he was there for her at every turn. He held her night after night as she cried herself to sleep, when she had nightmares of the terrible accident that had taken the woman that she loved from her and the unborn child that had been in her womb, or as she stood at the graveside and struggled to find the words to say how much that she would miss her. It had taken her a long time to finally be able to say the words that she had needed to say, but with Alex's help, she had found the right words to say goodbye. But the love she felt for the man who currently had her wrapped up in his strong arms, that love had slowly crept up on her and startled her out of the blue. She hadn't expected it, and yet when she realized just what it was that she suddenly felt for Alex Karev, she didn't fight it. She went with it and found the greatest love she'd ever experienced in her life. It took them some time to figure out exactly how things were going to go, but Alex was surprisingly a very patient man where she was concerned.


End file.
